Two decades of indispensable work by a great American writer - more than 40 longer and shorter pieces that illustrate a deeply felt, kaleidoscopic array of interests, passions, observations, and ideas.
Thirty-five years after her first collection, the classic Against Interpretation, America's most important essayist chose more than 40 longer and shorter pieces from the previous 20 years. "Reading", the first of three sections, includes ardent pieces on writers from Sontag's own private canon - Machado de Assis, Barthes, W. G. Sebald, Borges, Tsvetaeva, and Elizabeth Hardwick. In the second section, "Seeing", she shares her passions for film, dance, photography, painting, opera, and theater. And in the final section, "There and Here", Sontag explores her own commitments to the work (and activism) of conscience and to the vocation of the writer.